I’m the West Coast representative for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. I was a political columnist for SFGate.com (San Francisco Chronicle online) from 2004-2008. I've written for the Algemeiner, Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Independent Journal Review, American Thinker, FrontPage Magazine, Jihad Watch, Family Security Matters, Accuracy In Media, Newsbusters, Israel National News, Jewish Press, J-The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, and many others.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Utah Shooter a Bosnian Muslim

The question I posed yesterday about the Utah mall shooter has been answered and sure enough, he's a Bosnian Muslim.

Update III: Chuck Hustmyre has written an in-depth article on the Salt Lake shooter and his possible connection to the rash of crimes perpetrated by "lone (Muslim) gunmen" for Court TV's Crime Library.

Update IV: The Byzantine Sacred Art Blog has a series of posts on Talovic's Bosnian Muslim background (his father was a member of the mujahadeen army during the Bosnian war, and much more), as well as the mainstream media's revival of the Serbian aggression/Muslim victimhood narrative in its reporting on the Salt Lake City shooting.

Update V: Investor's Business Daily has an editorial on the Salt Lake shooting and Sudden Jihad Syndrome.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) -- The Bosnia-born teen who killed five shoppers at a mall in Utah fled the war in his homeland as a child, neighbors and friends said Wednesday.

Sulejman Talovic, an 18-year-old fatally shot by police after Monday's rampage, was only 4 when he and his mother fled their village of Talovici on foot after Serb forces overran it in 1993, people close to the family told The Associated Press.

Talovic lived as a refugee in Bosnia from 1993 to 1998, when his family moved to the United States, they said.

During that period, he spent some time in Srebrenica, the northeastern enclave where up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in 1995 by Serb forces loyal to late ex-Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. It was Europe's worst massacre of civilians since World War II.

Talovic left Srebrenica two years before the massacre, but acquaintances suggested it may have left an indelible mark on the quiet little boy they knew.

"That's why I'm convinced the war did this in Utah," said Murat Avdic, a friend of the family. "There cannot be any other reason."

Avdic, 54, said that when the village of Talovici fell, the family split up.

"Sulejman and his mother walked to Srebrenica, and from there were later evacuated by a U.N. convoy," he said.

"Suljo, the father, headed over the mountains and forests with his comrades as well. Many left the village, but only a few made it."

Avdic described the family as "very normal, very decent and quiet."

Sulejman "arrived in 1993 from Srebrenica on an overloaded U.N. truck full of women and children," said Zijad Cerkic, 33, the family's next-door neighbor in government-controlled Tuzla.

The father arrived two years later, in 1995, barely escaping the Srebrenica massacre.

"They were poor. They had lost everything," Cerkic said.

A 1995 peace agreement ended the war but left their native Talovici in the Serb-controlled half of the country to which the family did not dare return.

"We know they ended up in the United States. We never saw them again. It was a wonderful family," Cerkic said.

Apart from eight elderly returnees, Talovici village has been a virtual ghost town since 1993. All but two houses are in ruins, including the home of Sulejman's family, said former neighbor Adem Huric, 38.

Up to 200,000 people were killed and 1.8 million others lost their homes in Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

Oh that's right, it must be his traumatic childhood. That's the excuse for every crime on the planet.

As for Muslims being the "minority under fire right now," I guess that would explain why hate crimes against Muslims are miniscule to nonexistent while those against Jews have shot up since 9/11. But for some reason, you don't see too many of them shooting up malls, plowing cars into crowds of people, attacking airline counters or plotting to take down bridges. Imagine that!

Since the majority of crazy mass murderers in th US are still non-muslims, and your evidence of some sort of surge of lone terrorists in the US is scant, you simply look paranoid and bigoted...A bit like another group of Americans who may have something to do with those antisemetic hate crimes:

The Ku Klux Klan has experienced a worrying resurgence in popularity in the United States due to the "hot-button issues including immigration, gay marriage and urban crime" the Anti-Defamation League has said...

...According to the ADL, the KKK believes that "America is drowning in a tide of non-white immigration, controlled and orchestrated by Jews, and is vigorously trying to bring this message to Americans concerned or fearful about immigration."...

Oh, and let's not forget Mel Gibson and "The Passion." now there's a hate crime...

1. The KKK has been effectively marginalized since back in the 1960's. They still exist, but they do not or cannot ever regain the popularity or control they once had.

2. Mel Gibson's "The Passion" was just a movie.

3. PTSD in War Veterans, while real, is often more of a nervous condition in that we tend to be jumpy when certain noises are heard or we tend to stay keenly alert to our surroundings.

To some it is also a cash cow for VA Disability checks and thanks to Democrat pandering last year, the VA was prohibited from examining claims of PTSD closer.

It is also very easily fabricated and several who never even served in the Military but faked documents of Service still draw checks for sufferring it (see the book 'Stolen Valor' by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley.

But, I do appreciate you perpetuating the myth of the deranged Viet Nam Veteran.

4. While it isn't proven this Muslim youth's act was jihad related, given that the radical element of the religion has vowed to destroy Western Culture and replace it with their radical view and has carried out numerous terrorist attacks worldwide in the past few decades, it is definitely a worthy consideration to be examined.

1. The amount of killing and violence committed by all the white supremest groups is more than that committed by Muslims in the US. Muslim violence in the US is less of a problem than what you consider a "marginalized" KKK. I agree they are marginalized. That's my point - they're fringe. Same with the handful of Muslims you cite to make your case. Yet you continue to spread the idea that they're all ready to snap with "sudden jihad syndrome." Sounds like a case of Sudden Loss of Perspective Syndrome.

2. No shit. Huge movie. Very popular amongst the Jews-Killed-Jesus Christians ... which includes a huge portion of the white supremists. Very moving ... and motivating film for some.

3. You must be a troop hater. While there is always a handful of individuals willing to cheat the system for personal gain, that is certainly the exception. I guess those dead wives and children were part of the ploy to make themselves look ill? What about all the suicides? Boy, that plan wasn't well thought out - how can they enjoy their fat VA checks whien they're dead. As with most neocons, your lack of empathy and sensitivity are part of your own mental problems - whatever their source ... seek help.

4. If you think Americans would allow Jihadists to physically invade us and impose an Islamist state on us - you have little faith in our spirit and strength as a nation. And you call liberals surrender monkeys. ..

1. In two incidents, 1993 and 2001, Radical Islamic terrorists murdered over 3,000 Americans. No other group ever murdered that many in two incidents with no regard for who they may be.

2. A movie I didn't care to see, even though I am a Right Winged Christian (although of no particular religion) myself.

I might add there have been several movies, acclaimed and otherwise, that America embraced, that painted Veterans in a bad light.

3. A "Troop Hater?" Care to compare DD214s? Mine says Active duty US Army from 5 February 1969 to 9 March 1977, including 18 months in Viet Nam with C Troop 7/17th Air Cav/412th TC Det.

4. Where have jihadists ever invaded in large scale? They are not of the kind that stands up as an Army and goes toe to toe against another Army. They hit in small scale attacks of terror.

They have already penetrated our security measures twice in New York.

Worldwide, they are known for various smaller scale suicide attacks, designed to terrorize.

No one has claimed this Muslim youth was inspired by terror, yet. Ignoring any possibility of connection results in more deaths by lulling citizens back to sleep. We need not whip up hysteria against all Muslims, but given the radicals own claimed goals, more help from the Muslim Community in exposing and identifying those of that sect would be most appreciated.

The father of Trolley Square shooter Sulejmen Talovic apologizes over and over for the ordeal. Suljo Talovic says no one who knew his son saw this coming, and he believes someone pushed him to do it.

Suljo Talovic doesn't know where his son got the guns or how he learned how to use them. Suljo Talovic, Father of Shooter: "Somebody got (the guns)…and maybe (they were) training him and tell(ing) him (to), ‘go shoot somebody.'"

Question: So you think that somebody influenced him maybe to do this?

Suljo Talovic: "Yeah. I think somebody."

Talovic says the tragedy is taking a toll on his family.

Repeatedly, in a lengthy interview with KSL Newsradio, Talovic expressed the sentiment that someone trained and pushed his son to kill. He apologizes for the ordeal, saying it makes him feel horrible, like killing himself.

If he was influenced by Jihadists, you've only proven that a mentally ill young man can be brainwashed by radicals - just as a traumatized American can be brainwashed by radical neocon propaganda. Same deal. Your perception of the scope of the problem and your reaction and solutions are just as skewed as the Jihadists. I would venture to say that more people beleive in the Rapture than the the goals of Jihadists - that doesn't make it fact or even likely to occur. That's the weakness of both your (nonconservative) ideology and that of religious fundamentalists of all stripes: it's not based on observable reality.

PS - Elie Wiesel was just attacked by a white supremist while in San Francisco. But since he's not a neocon and waasn't attacked my a Muslim, I doubt I'll see a word about it in your blogs.

"Elie Wiesel was just attacked by a white supremist while in San Francisco."

He was attacked by a Holocaust denier. Where do you get the white supremist label from? I realise you only have a few nouns with which to advance your "position" but maybe you could vary them occasionally.

For all of you who are NOT educated enough.. Who are dumb enough to let the media control your small brains..... I have a question... WHAT DOES RELIGION have to do anything in situations like this?! In WHICH holly book does it say that it is OK to do such thing? Kill innocent people ...? People who do such are NON believers!!!!All of you who believe that ANY religion 'requires' to kill a innocent human being to be 'praised by God' are IDIOTS!!!!! Pick up ANY holly book and please find a place where it says KILL KILL KILL. You are NOT going to find that in ANY holly book.Terrorisam is when people kill innocent people, NOT because they are a certain religion.Islam did not kill those innocent people. This person has OBVIOUSLY, like the Vietnam vet's, seen TOO MUCH in the war..enough to mess up his mind... He needed help and therapy, but unfortunately it was not offered to him.. and now it is too late.. You are all so quick to judge human beings..You are all 'suggesting' to destroy God!!! ....and on top of that working on creating a bigger hatred towards a certain religion.. you are suggestion to destroy Islam... Who are we humans to pick on what religion is right what wrong. Believe what you want to believe, and if you disagree with another religion, its YOUR problem, not the worlds! Pick up Qur'an, Bible..ANY holy book..please tell me what did GOD do wrong to you for you to try to DESTROY him????????How about the Roman Catholic priest raping a child.. Should we now try to 'destroy' the Catholic religion and our Jesus? Here is another link..Christian priest raping kids...http://groups.google.com/group/alt.computer.consultants/browse_thread/thread/411d2e26cb01e1d2?pli=1Or the Orthodox Serbs that killed Catholics and Muslims in Bosnia...Once again, a group of morons got together ( NON BELIEVERS ), like those who participated in September 11 genocide, and decided to be IDIOTS that they are..God had NOTHING to do with this.. because not in Qur'an, not in Bible will you find that it is OK to kill innocent..

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I’m the West Coast representative for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. I was a political columnist for SFGate.com (San Francisco Chronicle online) from 2004-2008. I've written for the Algemeiner, Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Independent Journal Review, American Thinker, FrontPage Magazine, Jihad Watch, Family Security Matters, Accuracy In Media, Newsbusters, Israel National News, Jewish Press, J-The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, and many others.